"What is your greatest wish? To occupy an island with fresh water? Let me tell you, in the Land of Light, fresh water flows as abundantly as seawater. People there even use fresh water to bathe."

  "Like… like the Islanders??" Konor asked, his eyes filled with longing.

  "Exactly. Once we reach the Land of Light, none of us will have to struggle on this mad sea anymore. Everyone can live like the Islanders."

  Charles’ enticing words eased the fear of death, and everyone began discussing excitedly.

  Those who lived on the sea had always been indifferent to life and death. Those who feared death wouldn’t have boarded an exploration ship in the first place.

  However, not everyone was blindly optimistic. The captain of the amphibious exploration ship, dressed in a black uniform, calmly addressed Charles. "Captain Charles, even if what you say about the surface is true, how do we get up there?"

  Yes, how do they get up there? This was the same question troubling Charles. As far as he knew, the sea hadn’t developed much in the way of aerial technology.

  "Does anyone among your crew have the ability to fly?" Charles asked them.

  The captains looked at each other, then turned their gazes back to Charles. "Mr. Charles, don’t you have a relic that can turn you into a giant bat?"

  Charles pulled out the Bat Mirror, thought for a moment, then put it back. "This probably won’t work. Its previous owner was a vampire, and vampire relics are likely even more vulnerable to sunlight."

  "You won’t know until you try, Mr. Charles. Let me do it!" A young man with a white prosthetic eye eagerly stepped forward from the crowd.

  Without a word, Charles tossed the Bat Mirror to him.

  The result was disappointing. The giant bat burst into flames the moment it took to the sky, quickly turning to ash and scattering in the wind.

  Frowning, Charles picked up the mirror, which gleamed in the sand. He had thought finding the exit would solve everything, but he hadn’t expected the exit to be in the air.

  "Right, how do we get up there with such a huge sun? What if it’s Africa up there, where it’s never cloudy? Wouldn’t that mean we’d never get up?"

  Listening to Richard’s complaint, Charles’ eyes lit up. He suddenly realized he had been stuck in a blind spot.

  Having spent so long in the underground sea, Charles had momentarily forgotten that the sun on the surface wasn’t always present.

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  Richard immediately understood Charles’ idea. "Buddy, you’re brilliant! You remembered that there’s no sun at night. That means we can return to the surface in at most twelve hours!"

  Charles nodded, looking at the Bat Mirror in his hand with a hint of excitement.

  This was good news, and Charles quickly shared it with everyone.

  Upon hearing this uplifting news, everyone’s faces lit up with joy. It meant they could soon reach the legendary land.

  No one could remain calm in the face of such news. The day’s emotional rollercoaster was unprecedented for the crew, and it was a serious challenge to their facial muscles.

  Among the whistling, celebrating crew, the first mate, Bandage, secretly spat blood into the sea.

  Charles noticed this immediately and walked over to ask, "What’s wrong? Are you injured?"

  Bandage shook his head and opened his mouth, revealing a bloody mess inside.

  "Nothing… ate too much fish… mouth’s a bit rotten…"

  Charles immediately understood. Bandage likely had scurvy, caused by a lack of vitamin C.

  Thinking back to what the ship’s doctor had mentioned, it probably wasn’t just him. Other crew members likely had the same issue, though the severity varied.

  Glancing at the bright tropical island in the distance, Charles thought for a moment and patted his first mate on the shoulder. "Wait here for a bit."

  Charles returned to the island and began searching through the dense forest. The trees were lush, and there were many plants. Soon, Charles found some familiar fruits.

  Among them were bananas nearly a foot long and pineapples the size of fists.

  Most fruits contained vitamin C, and these tropical fruits could easily solve the problem. As for testing whether these fruits were poisonous, Lily’s mice could handle that task.

  Charles continued collecting various fruits, but as he did, he noticed that the distribution of fruit on the island was unusually dense, unlike an ordinary forest.

  When he climbed onto a tree trunk and saw the ruins almost completely covered by plants in the dense jungle, he finally realized who had brought these fruits here.

  Charles approached and found that, although most of the buildings were dilapidated and decaying, they still bore the minimalist style of the Foundation.

  Charles wasn’t surprised to find Foundation buildings here. Given their opportunistic nature, it would have been strange if they hadn’t noticed an exit point to the surface.

  Among the ruins, a long glass structure caught Charles’ attention. Shattered glass pieces were scattered everywhere, and the rust-free steel rectangular frame, like the skeleton of a giant worm, stretched into the lush forest.

  "A greenhouse?" Charles dismissed the idea when he saw a steel house inside.

  "The Foundation is impressive. They managed to build an elevator at such a height," Richard said, looking up at the crack in the dome.

  The steel house was an elevator room, and the steel supports were part of the Foundation’s elevator that once led directly to the crack in the sky.

  Charles didn’t know if there were other exits, but he guessed this was one of the Foundation’s main routes to the surface.

  "Time to go back." Charles gripped the fruits entangled in vines and quickly leaped through the trees toward the shore.

  Most of the fruits Charles brought back didn’t taste great. The small green pineapples were numbing and astringent.

  The bananas, though large, had no sweetness, and their seeds were huge.

  Among all the fruits, only the coconuts were somewhat palatable.

  Still, the vitamin C intake was sufficient.

  The fruits were heavy with water, and after several trips, Charles was exhausted. There was no other way; he was the only one who could move freely under the sunlight.

  Wearing sunglasses he had taken from a vampire, Charles lay on the beach, sipping coconut water and basking in the sun.

  After finally seeing the sun again, he was reluctant to return to the darkness.

  "Chirp, chirp~" The sound of mice came from Charles’ left. Curious, he looked up and saw Lily and her mouse friends nibbling on the coconuts he had picked.